This invention relates generally to an image transfer-type, heat-sensitive recording medium. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a two component type, heat-sensitive recording medium composed of, as a first component, a transferring sheet and, as a second component, a receiving sheet and capable of affording patterns with different colors when subjected to thermal recording conditions at different temperatures while maintaining the both sheets in contact with each other.
An image transfer-type, heat-sensitive recording material is of a type in which, when heat is applied to the recording material by means of, for example, a thermal stylus while maintaining the recording material in contact with a receiving sheet, a fused image formed on the recording material is transferred to the receiving sheet. As the heat-sensitive materials are applied in a variety of fields, there is an increasing demand for image transfer-type, heat-sensitive recording materials capable of affording two or more different colors and there are known several such recording materials in the art. For example, Japanese published unexamined patent application No. 57-150600 suggests the incorporation of a heat-sensitive ink which colors at a higher temperature into a layer of a solid ink provided over a substrate, the solid ink being capable of melting or subliming at a lower temperature. When the recording material is heated at a first temperature sufficient for the solid ink to melt but insufficient for the heat-sensitive ink to color, while maintaining the recording material in contact with a receiving sheet, a first image of the solid ink is transferred to the receiving sheet. Upon heating the recording material at a second temperature sufficient for the coloration of the heat-sensitive ink, there is developed a second image which is different from the first image and which is transferred to the receiving sheet. Although the first image obtained at the first temperature is excellent in both color tone and sharpness, the second image unavoidably has a mixed tone due to the simultaneous fusion of the solid ink and is not well-defined.